The present invention relates to an efficient live fish transport system. Also, the present invention relates to the components of this system including: a modular live fish transport tote, an oxygen delivery system, an automated water treatment and delivery apparatus and methods for use therefor, as well as a chemically and biologically balanced aquaculture solution and method for making same. The invention is applicable to fin fish as well as other seafood species such as crabs, oysters, lobsters, shrimp, and the like.
Live fish in the United States have traditionally been transported over-the-road by xe2x80x9clivehaulxe2x80x9d trucks. These are typically flatbed trucks that have been significantly modified to carry fish. Modifications include the permanent installation of multiple insulated fixed tanks or boxes in the flatbed. These tanks typically have hinged lids on the top and one or more circular or rectangular release gates on the tank side(s) for discharging water and fish together. Mechanical aeration with small motors and propellers to splash the water have more recently given way to liquid oxygen tanks, manifolds carrying the gaseous oxygen to oxygen flow meters (or rotometers), and subsequently to bubblers located in the bottoms of the tanks.
The transportation of liquid oxygen is highly regulated. The United States Hazardous Material Regulations (HMR) have recently been amended to require permits for the transport of liquid oxygen held under 20 psi pressure. This is well below the 50 psi operating pressure used by most live fish transporters. Live fish transporters that employ a tank, cylinder or the like of cryogenic oxygen plumbed into a xe2x80x9cprocess systemxe2x80x9d are not regulated by HMR and may be exempt from special permits (49 C.F.R. xc2xa7173.320(b). However, any tank that is not an integral part of the process system or that is disconnected from the process system (e.g., a spare tank), is fully subject to HMR. Thus, to avoid cumbersome regulations and the hassle of the permit process, a preferred live fish transport system would be one that avoids the need for additional non-integral and/or spare tanks of liquid oxygen. The invention herein addresses this need by providing a more efficient oxygen delivery system.
In addition to facilitating compliance with HazMat regulations, the present invention may further facilitate compliance with FDA regulations. Newly instituted rules regarding prepared food fish (e.g., chilled or frozen seafood) require extensive testing and record keeping that is impractical for the smaller seafood producer. Though intended to increase the level of inspection and control of seafood as close to the source as possible, these rules have in fact encouraged the small producers to look more favorably upon selling fish live instead of frozen or chilled. As described in detail below, the present invention reduces costs and overhead associated with live fish transport, further encouraging producers to sell fish live rather than prepared.
The standard livehaul truck may be used for live bait hauling or fingerling stocking as well as for transporting live food fish. Long-haul livehaul trucks are usually 18-wheelers, and short-haul trucks are usually straight bodied three-axled 10-wheelers. Due to the variety and types of loads, pickup and discharge locations, the configuration of these livehaul trucks is far from standardized. Rather, the livehaul truck is a highly specialized, dedicated piece of equipment for which there is little or no other alternative use. Due to the limited supply and erratic schedules of these specialized trucks, live fish producers and their customers are rarely able to coordinate supply and demand.
Loading of the live fish onto the dedicated livehaul truck can be quite cumbersome and costly. Typically, the fish are loaded dry (i.e., in nets without water), directly from the tanks and/or ponds of the fish farm into the integral fish tanks of the livehaul truck. Fish producers are faced with dirty trucks arriving with biologically xe2x80x9chotxe2x80x9d fish diseases, breaking the bio-security of their facilities with unknown consequences for remaining fish on the farm. and diseases almost certainly transferred to the fish being transported and sold. Furthermore, the livehaul truck frequently must be retrofitted with stiffening and strength materials to allow it to traverse the poorly maintained farm roads and climb the pond levee. The stiffening and strengthening add to the tare weight of the truck and, therefore, the shipping costs. The on-site loading results in a lot of wasted truck and driver time, which also adds to the total cost of shipping.
There are clearly significant disadvantages and drawbacks associated with the current livehaul system. The present invention attempts to address these problems, to remove the limitations and reduce the overall costs associated with live transport of commercial quantities of food fish.
For example, there is clearly a need in the art to xe2x80x9cuncouplexe2x80x9d the fish farmer from the traditional livehaul trucker""s specialized equipment and instead allow the farmer to use any common carrier""s equipment such as a flatbed truck or enclosed van. The present invention addresses this need by providing modular, standardized, forkliftable fish transport and storage totes designed to be readily interchangeable, regardless of the type of truck or fish to be transported.
There is further a need to reduce time between harvest and delivery. Traditional livehaul trucks require that the fish be xe2x80x9cpreparedxe2x80x9d in either dedicated purging tanks for days prior to shipment or on the truck once the fish are loaded. Preparation typically involves chilling down the fish to slow their metabolism and the adjusting the water chemistry and dissolved oxygen level tank by tank on the truck. The present invention addresses this problem by allowing the farmer to ready the fish upon receipt of order. The truck then arrives to a shipment ready to be immediately loaded and transported.
On a related note, the current methods of thermally preparing fish are quite problematic. Typically, fish are chilled by adding bagged crushed or block ice to the fish tank. This method is very dangerous and usually harmful to fish. Sudden large water temperature changes (up or down) are stressful and potentially lethal to fish. Control and accuracy with ice is virtually impossible. The present invention addresses this problem by providing an automated water treatment and delivery apparatus, including a chiller/heat pump, to carefully control the amount of temperature change and the rate of change per unit of time, digitally monitoring and adjusting against given settings, without human intervention.
There is further a need to limit the handling, netting, moving by pump, draining via chutes, and otherwise touching of the live fish between production tank and end user, to eliminate the numerous intermediate transport handling steps that are currently required. The system of the present invention allows the fish to be harvested directly into modular fish transport totes, purging and preparing (e.g., chilling) the fish for shipment in the same tote, and transporting, distributing and holding the fish at the destination until sold without removing the fish from the harvest tote.
The above process not only reduces the introduction and transfer of biohazards but also results in considerable labor and material energy cost savings. Traditional harvest-purge-chilling systems use large non-insulated tanks that are open to the air. The larger volume of water and the lack of insulation together correlate to much more electrical power consumption. Likewise, the requisite rate of heat gain or loss correlates to much larger, more expensive compressor units and more compressor motors. For example, whereas fish in a traditional load-outxe2x80x9d production tank, typically an uninsulated, out-of-doors, concrete tank, can take 36 to 48 hours to xe2x80x9cpreparexe2x80x9d, fish prepared using the system of the present invention can be prepared in under 8 hours with certainty of timing and temperature, with less electrical energy and management supervision.
There is further a need to protect against the introduction and transfer of fish born diseases, both at the origin site and destination site. Commingling fish species from widely separate, often unknown sources, threatens the entire live food fish industry. Likewise, certain states, such as California are currently contemplating xe2x80x9cnon-dumpingxe2x80x9d laws which would forbid the dumping of out-of-state live fish transport waters on the ground or into non-municipal water-treatment drainage to prevent the introduction of out-of-state fish diseases.
The modular nature of the fish transport tanks of the present invention address both of these issues. First, unlike the current generation of fish transport tanks, the fish transport totes of the present invention do not utilize a side port that dispenses both fish and water together. Rather, the totes have a hinged yet removable lid and sides that coordinate with the standard forklift, allowing the totes to be rotated and dumped by forklift, thereby avoiding the substantial ground spillage associated with the conventional side port designed for fish and water dispensing. Second, the fish transport totes of the present invention have removable components and an easily accessible interior. This allows all surfaces of the tote and its components to be decontaminated between loads, thereby lowering the risk of pathogen transfer among the fish pond, truck and destination site.
There is further a need to efficiently maintain a balanced environment for the fish during transport. Conventional fish transport tanks are generally sealed during transport. While this indeed prevents water spillage, it also prevents free air exchange which, in turn, results in a build up of toxic chemicals, such as carbon dioxide and ammonia, in the fish environment. In fact, dirty, murky water is the norm for most livehaul shipments. On-board water recycling systems are known in the art of crustacean transport (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,298). However, in terms of capital cost and loss of payload considerations with the 80,000 pound max federal gross weight truck-trailer limitation, the incorporation of such devices into the commercial transport of food fish is so expensive and inefficient as to be impractical.
The present invention addresses this need by providing an automated water treatment and delivery apparatus for use at the tote origin and a chemically and biologically balanced aquaculture solution for use in transit. Also, as described in detail herein, the present invention provides a system designed to take dirty water from many individual tanks, filter it, chill it, remove ammonia and carbon dioxide in a central unit, and return the processed water back to many tanks. Because of potentially different bio-loadings of individual totes, the independent oxygen delivery system is separate from the water circulation, allowing one to turn off the water circulation pump and hold the fish in the totes without water exchanges. Thus, fish may be transported and stored over extended periods of time in the balanced aquaculture solution of the present invention without need for water recycling or water exchange.
In addition to solving many of the problems associated with traditional live fish transport, the system of the present invention allows advances not possible or practicable under current systems. For example, using the system of the present invention, one can xe2x80x9caccessorizexe2x80x9d the farm fish. Instead of backhauling empty totes, small quantities of other species can be xe2x80x9csourcedxe2x80x9d at the farm site, placed in totes, transhipped, and loaded out with the other totes filled with the farm fish. Thus, the totes may be individualized for a particular market, mixing and matching small quantities in mixed loads intended for a variety of different locations. This xe2x80x9caccessorizingxe2x80x9d of species can be handled with a high degree of uniqueness impossible with traditional livehaul trucks.
Likewise, the present industry norm has live fish in a xe2x80x9choldingxe2x80x9d pattern, not gaining weight but taking up production tank space that could be used to grow additional pounds of new fish. The system of the present invention allows for the harvest of xe2x80x9cmarket-sizedxe2x80x9d fish when ready, and keeping them in a finished goods inventory occupying substantially less space at a fraction of the cost, and far more concentrated in terms of space taken up. Fish transported under traditional conditions (e.g., kept off feed at higher water temperatures and with water chemistry that causes them to stress while trying to osmoregulate) lose 4-5% of their body weight per day. Conversely, fish stored in stasis in the inventive totes, when coordinated with the automated water treatment and delivery apparatus of the present invention, lose less than xc2xc% of their body weight per day. Thus, customers can be assured of selling virtually all the live fish weight they purchase.
Finally, recipients of traditional livehaul loads generally must have their own display or holding tanks to receive the off-loaded live fish. The present invention allows the delivered fish to stay in the transport totes, and thus provides a variable holding capacity adjustable with each delivery of fish. The inventive totes can be pallet-jacked to a space within a retail supermarket seafood department and hooked up to a small high-pressure bottle of oxygen. The live fish can then be netted and sold directly out of the tote to the end user. The modular nature of the totes allows supermarkets to take delivery of much higher volumes without the fixed capital cost of meeting a seasonal demand change.
In sum, the present invention not only improves aspects of the conventional live fish transport system but may indeed revolutionize the entire live seafood industry. The present invention allows the conventional xe2x80x9charvest to orderxe2x80x9d mode of fish farming to be replaced by a continuously maintained inventory of live fish finished goods available for shipment at any time, on a moment""s notice.
The present invention generally relates to a system for improving the efficiency of live fish transport. More particularly, the present invention relates to the components of the system including a live fish transport tote, an oxygen delivery system, an automated water treatment and delivery apparatus, and a chemically and biologically balanced aquaculture solution.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an oxygen delivery system having (1) an oxygen flow meter; (2) a supply coupling for fluidically connecting the flow meter to an oxygen supply line; (3) a delivery coupling for fluidically connecting the flow meter to an oxygen delivery line; (4) an oxygen diffusing system comprised of radially projecting or extending oxygen diffusers directing oxygen flow to the periphery of a fish tank; and (5) an oxygen delivery line sealingly connecting the rotometer to the oxygen diffusing system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a modular xe2x80x9cforkliftablexe2x80x9d insulated live fish transport tote formed from a lightweight, durable, food-grade material and having interior and exterior surfaces, an integral base and side walls, and a gasketed removable lid with a vent hole disposed in the center thereof.
The live fish transport totes of the present invention may be used in combination with other aspects of the present invention, such as the oxygen supply system, the balanced aquaculture solution and the water treatment and delivery apparatus described herein. However, the fish totes of the present invention are not limited to this utility or combination.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for using the inventive totes to transport and store live fish over extended periods of time with minimal morbidity and mortality.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a chemically and biologically balanced aquaculture solution for transporting and storing live fish over extended periods of time with minimal morbidity and mortality. The solution is maintained at a temperature sufficient to induce thermal stasis in fish. In addition, the solution is substantially free from carbon dioxide and ammonia, and further contains an osmoregulatory salt gradient, an oxygen saturation level sufficient to maintain a plurality of fish, a calcium water hardness level sufficient to induce toughening of fish scales, a dynamic pH buffering system, and a bioactive bacterial culture. Unlike traditional live fish haulers, the present invention does not require the use of non-FDA anesthetic chemicals to quiet and still the fish. All the components of the inventive solution, including the active bacteria, are food-grade, e.g., human ingestible chemicals found in ordinary foods.
The present invention further provides a method for preparing the chemically and biologically balanced aquaculture solution for use in transporting live fish over extended period of time, comprising the steps of: (a) removing particulate matter from source water; (b) filtering the source water through an ammonia remover; (c) adjusting the temperature of the filtered water to a temperature suitable to induce thermal stasis in fish; (d) removing the carbon dioxide from said cooled, filtered water; and (e) adding chemical and biological balancing components to the water.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an automated water treatment and delivery apparatus for removing water from a plurality of live fish transport tanks and treating and returning the water to the same tanks, the apparatus comprising: (1) an ammonia remover; (2) a temperature controller; (3) a water reservoir; (4) a carbon dioxide remover; (5) a water dispenser; (6) a suction system; and (7) a circulation pump for circulating water through components (1)-(6), wherein the components are fluidically interconnected.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method for transporting and storing live fish over extended periods of time comprising the steps of (a) harvesting a quantity of fish and source water into a plurality of live fish transport totes; (b) coordinating the totes with the automated water treatment and delivery apparatus, such as that described above, wherein the apparatus suction system removes source water from the totes and the apparatus circulation pump circulates the source water through the apparatus filtration and treatment components; (c) treating the filtered source water and continuously circulating the water therethrough until a chemically and biologically balanced aquaculture solution is established; (d) returning the aquaculture solution via the apparatus water dispenser to the plurality of live fish transport totes; and (e) loading said totes onto a delivery vehicle, wherein said fish may be transported and stored within said totes for an extended period of time with minimal stock loss.
These and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages of the invention will become evident upon reference to the following description.